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Ronald Reagan's been dead since 2004, but someone still really doesn't like the former Commander in Chief: Someone set a life-size bronze statue of the Gipper on fire last week.
The statue, which is only a year old, sits in the Ronald Reagan Sports Park in Temecula, which was created after a non-profit raised $100,000 to honor the late president and former actor. It depicts a laughing Reagan with a shovel in one hand and a cowboy hat in the other.
The fire didn't do much damage to the bronze figure, but it did melt the layers of paint it once sported. The blackened statue seemed to have been cleaned up by the time CBS news crews arrived on the scene.
Tiles on the wall behind the statue, which features a quote from Regan about Temecula, were also damaged. In 1983, Reagan praised the city for raising the money to develop the park without help from taxpayers.
Perry Peters, who helps run the non-profit Friends of Ronald Reagan Sports Park, told CBS 2, "The people, the volunteers who built the park here without government funds, were insulted by this. This was a monument to them, as well as to President Reagan, who complimented them for using the can-do spirit."
There are no security cameras in the park, so whoever did this may remain a mystery.
The park is trying to raise money to restore the statue. You can donate on their site, which bears the message, "We will complete and restore the monument. As Reagan said, 'After all, we are Americans!'"
